The question is, in hindsight, might the ambient enchanter specialty have been better than essence? 1. His gradient is now the highest level. He is affecting everything and its 50-50 whether its good or bad. This specialty might have shifted all that power in his favor. 2. Yes obviously essence gave him access to awesome power. Maybe even a little op in combination with limitless. But, he also has a magic forge to learn enchantments. So he still has a solid way to gain powerful enchantments, especially in comibation with access to the labrynth. 3. His gradient could litterally bring catastrophe to him and his village and the whole continent at any given time. It'd be worth a lot to try and curb that negative side of the ability even just a little. 4. He would have hit evolution way sooner if he hadn't been spending all that xp. Would have fought Singh on more even footing tier wise. Also would have given him overwhelming advantage in mental combat vs all tier 1 beings. No need for weapons if you can crush someones mind in seconds without even using stamina or mana.. plus awesome benefit of crushing someone's mind is Alma can drain them afterwards without worry. 5. Essence enchanting is an Epic specialty, Ambient may have been higher given its rarity. Also considering that chaos lord is ledgendary.
He also might have been able to pull that same mystical shit and got clean water for drinking while he was down under and thirsty.
Cast my vote, going Ambient. Granted we are talking about this in hindsight. Prior to learning about the gradient he has as a chaos lord, I would have picked differently. 1st caveat: My choice is primarily based off of an assumption though that the ambient enchanter specialty would allow him to affect the probability of his gradient causing him and his peoe harm. It may not do that. 2nd caveat: im picking this based off of whats best for richter and the village, not what i would rather read about. This would make for way too much plot armor and a less exciting read.
I think it's a question of active use. They're both passive, but essence has visible bonuses lined up while ambient is more spur of the moment, "maybe its enough, maybe not". I'd like him to meet an ambient enchanter later on, that'd be really cool.
It is hard to say. I would definitely like to see an alternative future where he is an ambient specialist. Funneling his TP and Mana to increase the amount of change an aura that affects past and future to his benefit would be great, but I just don't know. It might be the better choice with his chaotic gradient, but would probably make for a worse story.
He might in time as he gets more powerful and higher Tiered Develop a sort of Proto Ambient Enchanting Sub-Skill/Ability due to his Chaos Aura and getting a better handle on directing it in a way he would at least partially like it to manifest?
I think its possible as he goes up in tier, it seems to give him better control and potentially better odds with chaos magic. But i doubt it for 2 reasons. 1. Controlling the chaos goes against the nature of chaos so doesnt seem like a very likely natural progression. 2. It would make a less interesting story if everything just starts going in the MC's favor because of his plot aura.
Another thing to think about is what the future tiers and focus may bring. Based off current info, I personally think he would have been better off with ambient. However, monster enchantments sound super powerful. We still don't know if/what his focus will be. No clue what specialty abilities would have gone with ambient though so its hard to guess.
The power of being able to turn any spell into an enchantment is a far more safe bet than the idea that an ambient enchanter could control the powers of the chaotic aura, something that affects reality in a large region. That not only goes straight against the nature of chaos, its likely Richter would be stuck trying to control the oceanic tides with a paddle. It might make a difference, but too small for a meaningful change. On the flipside Richter will be able to create enchantments off of the deeper powers along with chaotic, celestial, divine and heavenly enchantments. Its possible he will also go for the remaining higher elements, though I would stay away from void, hellish, devilish and abyssal enchantments. Those almost certainly have unfortunate side effects for mortals, its in the nature of those powers. Eldritch enchantments too, thats definitely a no go. Gravity, time and other neutral powers could be useful, with a lot of caution.
My guess is he'll go for an abyssal enchantment after he reaches the master rank in enchanting. 1) By this time he is very far along his journey, talent points shouldn't be a problem with Alma around with a much higher brain drain and conversion maxed out. 2) Master rank means he can enchant an item with out any deficit for not being there in the 7 minute window after it's smithed. So he can do it away from the forge, so the forge and by extension anyone else doesn't learn it. 3) It's the temptation of power. He's going to learn all the magics eventually. And by giving his people celestial power, slowly spreading celestialism through the Land, one is going to step up to him eventually. It's a safety net for absolutely wrecking someone who thinks they're holier than thou. Like with the light court king, summoning an abyssal lord or whatever to stomp his chamberlain
Assuming he becomes a celestial himself, we know they are vulnerable to abyssal, devilish and demonic prowers (and vice versa) just as Chaos has an adversarial relationship with Order. Its likely wielding such a weapon would come with heavy penalties negating most of the advantage.
True, there's always a catch. Given his (broken ass) limitless, it could likely be mitigated where it's still a large advantage. At a minimum progressing in ranks with abyssal magics should provide, if not a resistance to the effects, a lessening of the penalties to the point where the advantage would outshine its hampering. This would be waaay down the road though. Another interesting point. Can he, being the broken mc he is, gain opposing character types? Could he slowly inure himself to abyssal magics and gain an abyssal nature as well?
Maybe Ambient would have certain synergies, but the true strength of Essence Enchanter is the Talent Point Conversion. This one talent justifies his specialty.
